She muttered under her breath as she walked through the front door of her apartment, clenching a stiff piece of paper and its corresponding recently torn envelope in her right hand. She dropped her satchel bag on the floor, kicked her sneakers of roughly and threw herself on the black leather sofa. She read through the letter again, "This can't be, they can't do this!" she said to the dim, empty room. The letter, with the logo of the Avatar Program on the top right corner was crisp white, a stark contrast to her dark clothing.

"Ms Ahlia Tennant,

It is with sadness I inform you of a recent issue with your avatar. Unfortunately, the DNA sample you provided was found to be contaminated, and the growth of your avatar has been halted, and the initial attempt destroyed. Another DNA will be required from your person in order to create a new avatar for your scientific field trip to Pandora.

I understand that this will make it unable for you to be able to travel with the next vessel leaving at 0600 hours on the 16th of June; however you should be able to be eligible for the second trip leaving on the 18th March the following year if a DNA sample is acquired before the 10th of February.

We apologise for the delay in your trip,

Yours sincerely,

Dr Morris Grey

Head of Avatar Program"

Ahlia sighed. Unfortunately, reading the letter again seems to not affect the truth – she would have to wait another nine months to go on the next vessel; which according to the rumours going around may not be sent as the shareholders of the mining operation for Pandora, who run the whole show don't like sending scientists to research the planet until they get results from the mining operation.

She lay on the couch for a few more minutes. She was meant to leave next Monday for Pandora, but obviously this wasn't going to happen. She thought for a moment. Now that she was over the initial shock and anger at whoever contaminated her avatar she began to think of ways to get to Pandora without waiting for the military shuttles.

It only takes approximately a month for an avatar to have grown to a point where it would be stable for the six or so years it would take to get from Earth to Pandora. So if hers was to begin to grow say, tomorrow, that meant that she would have a stable avatar by August. She had her own interstellar vessel, as her parents lived on a planet in an adjacent galaxy and that was the only way to see them more than once every three years on a public vessel.

She got off the couch and began to pace around the small living room.

She had friends within the Avatar department who would probably help fit her ship out with the technology to keep her in stasis for the six years it would take to get her to Pandora, and to keep her avatar safe during the voyage. She could probably get there under her own steam.

She paused her pacing which her excited thinking had caused as she stumbled across the major problem. When she got to Pandora, wouldn't she be shot down by the trigger happy military? Unless she could contact the base beforehand - she needed the authentication codes...which her friend in the program might have?

She sighed again and walked into the small kitchen to get a glass of water. This was getting a more complicated problem than she had realised it would be. As she sipped her water, she decided to call up her friend Milda from the Avatar program for dinner, to see if this was even possible.

She turned off the car and grabbed her satchel bag from her passenger seat outside the restaurant. It was just a local one, but she and Milda had gone there whenever they needed some time where they didn't have to talk scientific jargon.

She walked up to the doors, her boots clomping on the pavement instead of the usual sneakers the only sign she had made an effort to dress up for this dinner.

The waiter walked her to the table where Milda was already waiting. Ahlia smiled as she saw her friend, who jumped up and hugged her around the middle as the waiter wandered back to the front desk.

"Hey Ahlia! How have you been doing? I haven't seen you for ages – I almost thought you'd forget to say goodbye to your old friend before you went off to Pandora for god knows how long!" Milda exclaimed, tapping the tabletop to show the menu on its surface, but keeping her eyes on her friends face.

"I would never dream of leaving without seeing you, but I'm not leaving next week Milda."

"What? But you've got to, they would've got your avatar up to a stable state by now you can't just leave them hanging – they'll be annoyed at you wasting millions of dollars you know"

"Nah I wouldn't do that," replied Ahlia with a small smile at her friend's reaction. "Apparently someone contaminated my avatar – so I can't leave till next year."

Milda's face fell, and her lips pressed into the hard line that showed she was angry or annoyed.

"That is such bullshit! Are they making you a new one? If not that's totally retarded. But either way, that's not much notice – I mean, everyone leaves in three days!"

"Yeah, I know Milda, so now, once I've just quit my job officially and packed and everything for this trip, they send me a stupid letter saying, oh sorry about screwing you over, we'll make you a new one that you can take in about a year!" Ahlia fumed.

"Wow. What are you going to do then? I thought they already replaced you at your work?"

"Oh I dunno. Sorry for going off like that, I just needed to talk to someone about it."

"Nah its okay Ahlia, I'm here whenever you need me, for anything." Milda reached over and patted Ahlia's hand softly.

"Anything?"

"Anything...wait what are you planning?" Milda asked as she noticed the look on her friend's face.

"Uh nothing."

"Come on Ahlia, I know you. You're planning something. Tell me?" Milda said with pleading eyes.

"Fine I'll tell you. Um, well since I have no job and was meant to leave soon, I was thinking if you could take over the growth of my new avatar and get it ready within a month I'll deck out my ship so it can take cryo and sustain the avatar...."

"Oh I see where you're going. That won't work you know – you'd get to Pandora, but as soon as you're there you'll need the authorisation codes so you can land and they won't shoot you. Also, you'll need to get your hands on an exopack – a military piece of technology created exclusively for the Pandora atmosphere. So how are you thinking you're going to be able to get there and it will be all hunky dory? Plus, with your old banged up thing you call a shit you'd probably get there hours before the next shuttle they're sending."

"Uh, okay for one thing, that shuttle might not even be going to Pandora – I've heard the shareholders won't pay for more scientists to go before they start receiving the unobtanium ores back from Pandora. And about the exopack and the codes...I'm thinking you could help me?" Ahlia looked hopeful as she looked towards her friend.

"Oh I dunno..." Milda began, pausing as the waiter walked towards them.

"Hi, are you ready to order?" the young man said politely.

"Uh yea I'll have the costa chicken with rice and a glass of water thanks," Ahlia quickly ordered her favourite – she always ordered it.

"And for you miss?"

"Uhm, the jungo lamb thanks. Oh and with a lemonade. Thank you"

Once the waiter had walked away Ahlia looked at her friend who sat staring back at her.

"I could get these for you. But you realise, if anyone found out I could lose my job – they wouldn't care about the fact you were already meant to be there."

"I know Milda, but please, it's all I've ever wanted to do when I heard. Can you imagine a world of plants? The only plants we have here are in gardens – carefully planted and kept alive in greenhouses. Please Milda!"

Milda sighed in defeat. "Fine Ahlia, I will. How about I meet you at my office tomorrow morning about nine. I'll start growing you a new avatar right away, and we'll work on those codes and stuff later."

"I love you Milda, you know I do," Ahlia said with gratitude as the waiter returned with their drinks.

"You so owe me" Milda said as the waiter walked away again.

"I know."

"This better be worth it"

"Oh it will be. If it helps you can say it's an early birthday present." Ahlia joked.

"Ha, yeah maybe Ahlia, weren't you going to turn twenty finally you youngin' on the day the shuttle leaves for Pandora?"

"Heh yea, oh well. I'll still get there and no one's going to stop me" Ahlia promised.

Their talking ceased as the food arrived and they ate until it was gone.

Ahlia held her mouth open wide as Milda took the necessary samples for the growth of the new avatar.

"Don't worry, I'm not taking any chances that these will get contaminated" said Milda from behind a medical mask.

"Good to know" Ahlia said, closing her mouth.

Milda put the samples in all the various bottles and carried them over to the DNA splicing station to splice the DNA with the native DNA of the Pandoran natives.

"You know, I think you should actually learn the native language. I know you haven't already you lazy woman."

"What Na'vi? That annoying language. I can't speak it no matter how hard I try Milda, so what's the point? Others can speak it for me."

"Yes, but what if you were stuck in the forest and ran into a Na'vi? You'd be screwed, that's what."

Ahlia shrugged. She knew she probably should learn it, but the language was worse than French, and she had to do three months of that in university, which equated to about two years work of everyone else.

"Okay, that's all done, you're avatar will be ready for transport in about four weeks Ahlia."

"Awesome," Ahlia smiled knowing her hopes weren't all dashed for going to Pandora.

"Now about the codes and the exopack. I've heard that this guy can get them, so you'll have to go see him. You'd probably want to buy a really good A.I. autopilot for your shuttle so you'll wake up when you get there and stuff, so go get that too. Stock up on supplies, buy some weapons just in case. Good luck Ahlia I'll see you in a month to transport your avatar." Milda said, handing Ahlia a business card and a list of supplies for the trip.

"Thanks Milda, you're the best"

Milda smiled, "I know."